Ingredients:

Method:

Clean chilies with running water, seeded and sliced. Transfer the chilies to a mortar.

Heat up a wok or pan on low heat and “toast” the belacan until aromatic. The texture of the belacan would turn dry and powdery after toasting. Transfer out and add to the chilies and start pounding with the pestle until fine. (Some people like their sambal belacan somewhat coarse so it’s personal preference.)

Transfer out to a bowl, add salt and sugar to taste and add lime juice (or kalamansi lime juice). Blend well. You can keep the sambal in the refrigerator for up to a few days.

Following my recent post on sambal asparagus, I thought I would show you how to make sambal belacan from scratch–a must-have Malaysian condiment and the basic building block for many delicious Malaysian recipes.

Sambal belacan consists of chilies, belacan (Malaysian shrimp paste), kalamansi lime (limau kasturi), and salt and sugar (to taste or optional). In the US, kalamansi lime is scarce so lime can be used as a substitute. However, in reality, kalamansi lime is made for sambal and lime is inferior when it comes to sambal belacan. So, if you have access to kalamansi lime, please use it, or if you have some, please give them to me.

I discarded the seeds because they are very hard to pound using a mortar and pestle, plus I think there is a belief that they are not great for the digestive system. I don’t mind some of the seeds in my belacan actually because it gives some extra “texture.” I guess it’s personal preference.

I am from New Zealand and recently had a chance to try out sambal belacan while traveling in Penang. I have to say that it tasted strong for my palate at the first taste, but then very quickly, it won me over. I agree that sambal belacan is a perfect dipping sauce for ikan bakar. It was probably the best grilled fish that I had ever tasted in my life. The aroma of burnt banana leaves and the sambal are simply perfect. Thanks for this great post!

Hi, I live in Australia and have been reading your blog for awhile now. My mum does her sambal belachan in bulk and it keeps in the freezer for ages. She divides them up in ice cube containers. The only difference in her recipe is after cooking the belachan she adds in the pounded chilli, salt and sugar and cooks it. She does this to kill all the bacteria etc so that it will keep in the freezer. She doesn’t add the lime…..only when she’s brings it out of the freezer to use, will she then add the lime juice.

Right, that’s the way to freeze sambal but I usually make some to last me for a few days. Adding lime when serving is right, but I don’t always have lime juice in my fridge so I add everything first. ;)

I’m pretty sure the Kalamansi you are talking about is the same as the ones Filipinos use, spelled Calamansi/calamondin though. It isn’t that hard to find if you know of a Filipino market in your area such as seafood city, or island pacific, you can purchase a whole bundle for a good price.

Yup spell it with a k, or a c all the same haha. You can try Seafood City or Island Pacific Both markets have branches in [Cerritos,Carson, LA, West Co., & Panorama] addresses are on their sites. I’m from LA & calamansi can thrive perfectly in Socal weather. We used to have a tree that bore fruit year round, so if you can try buying one for yourself go for it! The seafood city I work in sells calamansi trees, so im sure you can get one for a good price at the one nearest to you.

Hi Bee! Thanks for sharing your recipe – we have tons of kalamansi here and it is also very popular to use as a condiment, or part of condiment sauces. I’d love to send you some but I don’t know if it would survive the trip there — or get caught on the way! What chilis do you use here if not bird’s eye?

Yum…it’s a good thing I made instant noodles before coming across this page. You’re really making miss home right now. I always bring about three bottles of sambal belacan back to AUstralia when I’ve gone home

My fav is the stuff served up by a small restaurant chain in Singapore called Sanur. It packs a wallop that doesn’t immediately strike – instead building gradually until you’re almost crying. But it’s so good you just need one more bite! And another. And another.

Thank you for posting this lovely recipe…I haven’t had sambal belacan for few years now, thus I decided to make sambal belacan today to accompany it with some vegetables. Although I had to substitue kalamansi lime for normal lime juice it turned out great. Wonderful!

Jayne – this is a uncooked sambal for eating with rice and dipping purposes. I have another cooked sambal recipe which is more like a spice paste, for cooking, that’s why you need to cook until the oil separates.

In this recipe, I noted that you wrote 1 tbsp shrimp paste, does that mean you aren’t using the block form type of belachan?

I have a jar of Lee Kum Kee fine shrimp sauce, it’s kind of purplish in colour, and of puree consistency, made of fermented shrimps. Is that alright to use? Do i still need to toast till it’s dry then?

Yes, belacan (Shrimp paste) is in a block, but I used 1 tablespoon of it. I have to measure it somehow so I cut out a small piece and measured it precisely with tablespoons. No, LKK fine shrimp paste is not for this recipe, you have to use Malaysian belacan.

Please cafirm that the smell of toasting dry belachan is not pretty on the nose
We just came back from KL and we used to eat Kangkong Belachan
But we cant replicate it at home in Perth
My husband grows his own Kangkong, but we buy the sambel belachan in a jar. Can you give me a good recipe for Kangkong belachan so I can make it from scratch please.

i adore sambal belacan. Your recipe is very good except for the sugar bit. I do have to say something as i feel very strongly about this. I find even a hint of sugar in a sambal belacan is horrifyingly disgusting and wrong.

Your weblog seems to be having some compatibilty issues in my chrome browser.
The text appears to be running off the page pretty bad.
If you want you can e-mail me at: mitchelljustus@gmail.com and I’ll shoot you over a screen grab of the problem.